Abstract
Conference Title: 2017 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Conference Start Date: 2017, Oct. 1 Conference End Date: 2017, Oct. 5 Conference Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA This paper presents a comparative study between a conventional boosted-VSI electric/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) powertrain converter with alternative topologies including bidirectional CSI, Silicon (Si)-based current-fed Quasi Z-Source Inverter (CF-qZSI), and Silicon Carbide (SiC)-based CF-qZSI. The higher switching frequency operation of SiC MOSFETs enables the size reduction of reactive elements necessary for bi-directional power flow through the input Z-network, and results in higher efficiency and power density of the overall system. Research results support this claim, bolstering the possibility to replace conventional VSIs with CSIs in the future using wide bandgap (WBG) devices.